Dear friends, Good day to you all. Hope everything goes well with you. I happened to watch a video clip on the social media. A person on the video was talking about education. Quoting Nelson Mandela who said, "Education must change the world", the person was saying that he differed from Mandela’s view about education. This man was saying so because according to him the so called educated people don’t seem to be happy, with all this education the world has not become a better place, with all this education, the world does not enjoy peace. The education accord-ing to him has become only the transmission of information, not the transmission of values. He quoted C.S. Lewis saying that education without values helps to create clever devils. This seems quite right looking at the present scenario.

The fault is not with education in itself. The fault is with the people who receive it and do not live it. The education is not assimilated but it is annihilated by those who are not ready to abide by the values that are supposed to be transmitted to the learner. The real education should be the transmission and planting of the human values, without which the words of CS Lewis would become hundred per cent true. I don’t want to deeply delve into it as it is a vast subject. My concern is about Christianity, not necessarily as religion (of course it is), but as a way of life. We Christians are well informed about Christ, his teachings, scriptures and so on. Most of the time I am afraid if it is only the transmission of just information about these elements or it is really the transmission of Christ himself with all his teachings and values. The transmission of information about Christ and his teachings is not go-ing to make us Christians and they can not unless we assimilate this information into our lives and make them our own. The transmission of this information should be such that they transform us into the personification of the teachings of Christ. If this does not happen, we also will be well informed people about Christ, not Christians.

All our reading of the Scriptures, all our participation in the liturgy, all the listening to the exegesis of the scriptures and homilies, all our individual and communitarian forms of prayers should not only be the means of transmission of information but cat-alysts of inner transformation into Christ (alter Christus). That is when we can call ourselves Christians or the followers and believers of Christ. We need really to make a deep examination of ourselves as to see whether we are just well informed or we are real Christians.

I had been to Festival Foods in Marshfield few days ago. After I finished my picking things from the store, I was in line for check out. One of the workers there said in a loud and rather commanding voice, “Some of you may want to go to the liquor department and get checked out”. As I was last in line and was also in a hurry to get out, I went to the check out counter of the liquor department. It is right about that time few people who knew me came and wished good evening. (Our CRE Sherrie was also one of them). I wished them back and after few seconds I came to my senses and thought, “Oh, all these who wished me would think that I was buying liquor”. This thought gave an embarrassment.

After a while I thought to myself, “After all I was not buying any liquor and why should I be embarrassed? If they should think that I bought liquor, it is not my fault, but their misconception. My conscience knows what I am doing”. I consoled myself and started back home.

I would like to bring out two things from here. One is the fact that we should worry about or be concerned about what our conscience thinks. Most of the time our conscience would be true to us and right most times. But this does not automatically happen. It can happen only when the formation of our conscience is proper and right. Because, we see that in this modern age even the wort stuff is right and good in the minds of some people. This is so because their conscience is not formed well. As Christians we believe our conscience is formed well because we believe in Jesus and His teaching we try to follow.

The other thing I would like to draw from this incident is our rash judgement about people, without knowing the full story or the complete scenario. (I am not referring to people whom I met at Festival Foods, I know they are all good). What happens most of the times we see the tip of the iceberg and try to come to some conclusion which always ends up wrong or untrue. We need to see the whole picture of anything before we could draw any conclusion or before inferring anything. Coming to a rash judgement or some unreasonable conclusion spoils the image of people about whom we judge and at the same time portrays a negative impression about ourselves too, especially our defective reasoning and judgement.

May we try to fear our conscience and before that form our conscience and also may we try to believe that any rash judgement we make spoils the whole atmosphere. This would help us have a good and smooth relationship with all the people we live with.God bless you all.

Dear friends,Hope you are doing well, in spite of the funny weather we had in the past weeks. Hope and pray that the unexpected winter goes off soon and we have a better spring.We had the Divine Mercy Sunday Devotion last Sunday. It was very solemn and very devotional. Many people attended and participated whole heartedly and I was particularly happy about the number of people that made their confessions. It was really a great time, the whole 75 minutes. I really believe that they all experienced the Divine Mercy that day and, in the days, to come too. I appreciate them all and I appreciate who were behind the scene to get it together. I would expect more people be benefitted by it next year.There was once a king who built a wall around his palace. Upon the walls he placed many pots filled with gold. When people had to pass by that place they saw the wall and the pots kept on the top of the walls. Some of them became curious as to know what would be inside the pots. So some of the passers by climbed the wall and were surprised to see those pots that were filled with gold coins. Some were afraid to touch them because they thought it was king’s idea to entrap the robbers in his country. But some were daring enough to take some pieces of gold and they went home with some gold. Many followed and took some pieces of gold.When some were doing the same thing, to take few pieces of gold from the pots on the wall, there were only very few to go beyond the walls to the inside of the palace to meet the king personally and meet him and came out with most precious gifts. These were the people who received more valuable ornaments and precious gems than those who took gold from the pots on the top of the walls.This is the case with many of us too. There are many more precious things in our lives than the things we have. What happens is, we become content with the less valuables like money, wealth, power, menial pleasures, people and many other short-lived things like these. We often do not realize, there are more valuables than these. We forget or we do not realize that the creator of all these has much more valuable treasure than that we see and own to enjoy only for a short time.The creator of all these is the owner and author of all everlasting joy and wealth. The joy and wealth he owns is eternal and never ending. It is only very few who search for them and find them. It is the wise people who go to the Creator and owner of all this universe to avail and own the eternal joy and happiness. Are we among the wise ones?May the blessings of the Risen Lord be yours.

Hi friends,Hope you are well. My wishes and prayers that you have a wonderful time.I really wanted to appreciate all of you very much for your participation in the Easter celebration. I was really astonishingly happy to see the crowd for the Easter Sunday masses. This amount of people was more than even the crowd of Christmas. That is a great thing. You all deserve appreciation. This is a sign of a vibrant church and actively participating church. God bless you all.I would also like to thank everyone who sent me cards wishing me well for Easter and those who wished me through the social media. Your love and concern encourage me a lot. I cordially appreciate that sentiment. Thank you very much once again.Today we have the first communion for our kids. This is a great event for our parish as a family. We all need to celebrate it irrespective of whether any kids from the individual family receives communion or not. This is a family celebration. Not only this is a celebration, this is also a challenge, a challenge to set an example for our kids as to how a person who receives communion should transform and live. It is really a great challenge.This challenge can be really faced well only if we could strongly believe that what we receive during the Eucharistic celebration is really the body of the Risen and living God Jesus Christ. We need to understand, believe and reveal that faith by our way of life which should be Christ-like. That is the way we could face the challenge and be an example of a good Catholic to our kids. It is from us that they learn what is Christian life, it is from us that they learn what is Christian faith, it is from us that they learn what it is to be Christ-like, it is through us that they should learn and know who a Christian is. So, our challenge becomes more serious and more binding.Our reception of the Holy Eucharist most of the time seems ineffective. The Eucharist we receive doesn’t seem to transform us. This is a bitter truth. Where and what is wrong. The fault is not with the Eucharist, the fault is with us. There is fault in the very understanding of the Eucharist, there is fault in the way we approach it, there is fault in the manner we receive it, there is fault in the disposition with which we receive it, there is fault in our involvement in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. That is why the reception of the Eucharist is ineffective.However much of food may be available for us and be placed in front of us, if we do not consume it and absorb it, the food lies waste. Only when you eat it and absorb it the body is nourished and gets sufficient energy. The fault is not with the food, it is with the consumer. So it is with the Eucharist. If we don’t receive it with proper disposition and faith, making a good confession, that would be a waste.Congratulations to all the First Communicants and our prayers go with them along with the special blessings of the Lord.God bless.Yours sincerely in the Risen Lord,Fr. A. Antony.

Happy to see you after a while. Hope you are all well. I would like to thank you for all your extraordinary love that you showed to me. I had emails wishing me well when I was sick at home in India. I really appreciate your wishes and prayers. It really helped me a lot. I would like to request you to continue your support by your prayers.

In one week nine of our kids are going to receive First Holy Communion, five from St. Mary’s and four from St. Michael’s. Let us pray for them. Let their first experience with our Lord be an exciting one and fruitful one, too. These children depend on our exemplary life in regard to all spiritual matters. May they learn a lot from each one of us and grow in spirituality.

The coming weekend is also the Divine Mercy Sunday. This is one of the most powerful prayers. We will have a service on that day at 2:30 in the afternoon at St. Michael’s. Kindly attend and receive the blessings and the graces of God.

Today we celebrate the Easter Sunday. This is an undeniable historical event. There may be people who question this. It is because of the lack of faith and the attitude of indifference. But we as believers and followers of Christ Jesus, we should be proud and happy that we are worshipping one true God. No religion in the world has a true and living God as we do. That is why in spite of all oppositions, hurdles, calamities and wars, this community of faith still stands as Rock. Nobody can ever do anything against this true God and his people. Let us be glad that we are saved by this Risen Christ.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter. May the Risen Lord fill all your homes and hearts with abundant blessings and joys of his grace. May you all have a happy, content and prosperous life with the unceasing shower of the grace of God.

There has been a tradition that during the paschal season the houses are blessed. If anyone wants their house to be blessed kindly let me know and I can come and bless your house. That will be an added blessing for you. If willing contact the office and schedule a time.

Happy Easter once again and God bless you.

Yours sincerely in the Risen Lord,Fr. A. Antony.

Pastor's ColumnPosted here is the weekly column featured in the bulletin of Saint Mary, Saint Michael & Saint Kilian parishes.